Meet Re-Timer, a Weapon to Combat Jet Lag?

The team at Flinders Universifty say the Re-Timer can help make sluggishness on arrival at airports a thing of the past.

Before there were flatbeds and in-flight massages. Now, Australian sleep scientists claim to have developed a new weapon to combat jet lag: a device that resets the body’s internal clock.

The team at Flinders University in South Australia state say their invention – known as Re-Timer – can help make sluggishness on arrival at airports a thing of the past by mimicking the benefits of sunlight.

With international air travel rising as the emerging middle classes in countries like China and India book overseas trips, airlines and manufacturers see a potentially lucrative opportunity in finding a silver bullet for the tiredness and confusion that often follow a long-haul flight.

While it’s long been known that the brain regulates its sleeping and waking patterns according to sunlight, early devices were unsuitable for air travel because they were too large, required a fixed power source like a wall socket, or needed users to stay in one spot for up to an hour at a time.

The latest generation of products, including the Re-Timer, is overcoming these challenges through the use of light-emitting diodes, or LED technology.

Earlier this year Finnair began offering a light-emitting headset and earplugs developed by Finnish tech firm Valkee Oy to its passengers as a cure for jet lag. Separately, Abu Dhabi-based carrier Etihad Airways installed mood lighting in its cabins to ease the effects of jet lag.

The Re-Timer is worn like a pair of sunglasses and emits a soft green light on to the eyes, meaning it can be used in the evening or on overcast days. If flying from Sydney to Berlin, air travelers should wear the Re-Timer for 50 minutes each evening in the three days before their journey and once after arrival to avoid nausea associated with jet lag, the product’s developers say.

The Re-Timer will be launched officially Wednesday at Flinders University with a price tag of US$249 per unit.

Professor Leon Lack of Flinders University, the chief inventor of the Re-Timer, told Digits a key scientific discovery was that it wasn’t white light in general which was effective in regulating the body clock. Instead, it was the light at the blue and green end of the spectrum.

And it was another, more prosaic discovery around 15 years ago that solved the problem of how to make any future device portable.

“I came into the shed outside my house, opening up the door to get some tools, and noticed my daughter had failed to turn off the flashing LED lights on the back of her bike,” Mr. Lack said.

“I knew she’d put the bike away several days beforehand and I thought that’s very efficient for one little battery to supply a light emitting diode for a long period of time. Since it’s so small and requires so little power, I wondered could they get enough light into the eyes? The answer was yes, if they were brought much closer to the eyes.”

Flinders University set up Re-Time Pty Ltd. to develop and promote the product. The Re-Timer will be manufactured by South Australia-based SMR Technologies, which also has an equity stake in the start-up company.

Re-Time Pty Ltd. is already in talks with airlines about promoting the product for flights. It’s also also eyeing other markets including treating sleeplessness, winter depression caused by a lack of natural light, and use by shift workers such as security guards and nurses whose sleep patterns are disrupted by working at night.

Ben Olsen, managing director of Re-Time Pty Ltd., said the company has already signed up distributors in China and Japan, while talks are underway with prospective customers in Europe and North America.

“We’ve already sold several thousand units and we haven’t even launched the product, so that’s a very good sign indeed,” Mr. Olsen told Digits. “Longer term we hope to be moving 100,000 units worldwide annually within three years.”